Simplicity is Even Better
by Lord Mendasuit
Summary: Because a complicated life can only get more complicated when a murderer is on the loose and after you, Harry continues to focus on problems one at a time and on solutions of the simple kind. Third year on the Simplicity Series.
1. Getting Past The Train

Professor Lupin handed Harry a bar of chocolate. "Luckily, I fainted while it was trying to snog me. If I'd fainted any earlier, I'd look like a total pussy," said Harry, muching on the tasty treat. "Anyway, thank you, Professor Lupin... say, you wouldn't know a way to fight them off, would you?"

"It's my pleasure, Harry," said the shabby-robes-wearing-man, "call me Remus, outside the classroom, it's the least I can do, seeing as your father was one of my best friends," explained the newly introduced professor.

"You don't say?" asked Harry, in clear wonderment, "I suppose my father must have been a terrible friend."

"What? Why? He wasn't, Harry, I assure you! He was a great man- has Snape poisoned your mind against him? You shouldn't believe him, sure we pranked him a lot, but he was, and is, if you will pardon my disrespect, a total git!" huffed Lupin.

"No, I meant because you never once made your existence known to me. I would have liked having someone to talk to about my parents, growing up, maybe then I would have known they weren't a pair of destitute drunkards," said Harry, voice cold. He handed the remains of a half eaten chocolate bar to Ron, who devoured it promptly. "Good day, Professor Lupin."

The coldness of Harry's voice sent more shivers down Lupin and Hermione's spines than the dementors had.


	2. Getting Past Loony

"You're being illogical, emotional and rash, which is a new for you," said Hermione, raising an eyebrow.

"I couldn't care less, Hermione," said Harry. "Hm... I wonder if a basilisk's stare can kill a dementor... worst comes to worst, I'll have Sally eat them," he said, shrugging.

"Sally?" asked Ron, clearly shocked.

"I didn't tell you? The basilisk is named Salazar. It seems to me he had a bit of an ego problem. Anyway, Salazar is a mouthful, and it makes my tongue hurt to speak it in parseltongue, so, Sally," he said, as if it solved everything.

As the Golden Trio of Gryffindor headed to their compartment, after a round of making sure nobody had been hurt by the dementors that wandered into the train, they came upon a most peculiar image. A witch wearing butterbeer caps as a necklace and a pair of plastic radishes as earrings. The Hogwarts uniform, painted in Ravenclaw's colors, was perhaps the only thing normal about her. Well, her hair could be called normal, even if it was close to Malfoy's blond color.

Her wide, innocent-looking eyes scanned them...

… but Harry didn't see that, because he was looking at her feet. At her completely bare feet. That could not possibly be healthy.

"Oh, hey, Loony," said Ron, as if she was the most normal thing in the world.

"Hi Ronald," the witch replied, as if being addressed as such was the most normal thing ever. "Hi, Harry Potter, my name is Luna Lovegood. You must be Hermione Granger. I have to warn you that your hair seems like a prime nest for Nargles, and you should watch out for that," she said, walking past them without waiting for acknowledgment.

"Luna, where are your shoes? And socks, for that matter," Harry said, a frown on his face as he spoke. He was not a pessimist, but this was weird and he dearly hoped it wasn't what he suspected.

"Oh, the Nerfherders have a habit of stealing them when I'm changing. They usually come back with only a few bit marks later," she said, matter of factly, turning around and offering Harry a smile.

"Luna, could you show me the Nerfherders? I'd like to have a word with them," Harry said, his voice as calm as possible.

"I haven't been able to see them lately, so I don't know where they've nested on this train, but you should be able to recognize them if you see them. They're big and they have squinty eyes, and they make a lot of noise when they think they are alone in the room," she explained, looking around as if hoping to see them pass by, a whimsical tone and smile on her face.

"Luna, do you wanna share a compartment with us?" asked Harry, smiling kindly at her.

"That would be delightful!" she said, her whimsical tone becoming very obviously happy as she spoke. "Thank you very much for the offer, Harry Potter! I think the others in the compartment will thank you, too."

Harry ground his teeth as he forced a smile at Luna, who skipped merrily towards her compartment.

"Harry, mate, are you alright?" Ron finally asked.

"Yes. But I have a feeling that I might be feeding Sally sooner than I thought," said Harry, his tone a low growl.

"You're not acting like yourself," pointed out Hermione, "first you blow up at Lupin and now you get angry for no reason when a girl is telling you crazy stories about nonexistant animals," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Are you so blind, Hermione?" asked Harry, blinking, "her shoes, and socks for that matter, were clearly stolen by somebody else. Do you think she'd walk barefoot, looking for them, if that weren't the case? And from how she spoke and the way she acted, I doubt this is an isolated occurrence. Something smells rotten in the house of knowledge, and heads might roll this year."

"You're probably exaggerating. I doubt Professor Flitwick would allow rampant bullying right under his nose," Hermione said, sighing.

"It's Loony. She's like a magnet for bullying. I think the only person I know who's nice to her is Ginny," Ron said, a frown on his face. Seeing as the other two were confused, Ron sighed. "She lives close to my home. She and Ginny are childhood friends. They used to do everything together, but one day, Luna stopped coming by so often and then she was Loony and she's been like that ever since," finished the redhead.

Harry closed his eyes and meditated for a few seconds.

"Well, at least we'll do our best to give her a few more friends," Hermione said, firmly. "I know how being lonely feels."

Harry hummed, silently, as he saw Luna pushing her trunk as she approached them. Together, they went to their compartment. Ginny joined shortly afterwards, after changing.

"This will probably be an interesting year..." Harry muttered.


	3. Getting Past Moony

"Harry, I-"

The Boy Who Lived looked completely uncaring. "Yes, Professor? If you would excuse me, I have other classes to get to," said Harry, turning around and leaving the moment Lupin failed to immediately answer his prompt.

"No, wait, please!" Lupin said, taking a step forward and putting a hand in Harry's shoulder. "Please, just... just let me explain!" pleaded the shabby looking man.

"Explain what? There is nothing for you to explain here, Professor. It seems my father had terrible taste in friends," said Harry, looking positively disgusted as he glared at Lupin. "We have nothing to talk about. You should have come to seek me out when I was starving, locked inside a cupboard."

Looking horrified, Remus Lupin threw himself back as if he'd been struck by the Cruciatus Curse. "W-W-What!?"

Harry swore under his breath. For some reason, Lupin managed to get under his skin and make his blood boil just by existing. He'd been looking forward when the man proved himself actually competent by chasing away a dementor and countering its effects, but now every lesson with the man was a reminder of what a shitty friend he'd turned out to be.

"Harry! Just... Just let me explain to you why... why I never visited you, before you make up your opinion, okay? If you want to hate me then... I will never reach out again and I will let you live in peace, okay?" pleaded Lupin, throwing himself to the floor.

Seeing how desperate the man was, Harry sighed. "Nothing you can say could explain why you decided it was a good idea to never, ever, check on the orphaned boy left alone in a hostile environment," said Harry, clearly still pissed, "but I will humor you," he added.

"Thank you, for at least giving me a chance," said Lupin, sounding truly grateful. "Believe me, Harry, I wanted so bad to visit you... to hold you in my arms like I used to when James and Lily had to take a rest or go to work... But I couldn't, Harry. I... I'm a werewolf, Harry," Lupin said, shocking Harry into silence. "Even then, I still made several attempts to visit you. All of them illegal, since werewolves are not allowed into the Muggle World," well, law abiding ones anyway, "but the wards around your home, the same wards that kept you safe from the last remnants of You Know Who's servants, kept me out too. I literally couldn't have visited you, even if I'd wanted to. I couldn't approach your person openly in public, for reasons that I think you're still too young to burden you with, and I couldn't approach you privately in your home."

"I've been at Hogwarts for two years now, going on a third. Why not approach me then?" asked Harry, skeptical.

"Every time it came down to it, I got cold feet. After eleven years, I thought to myself I didn't have the right to interrupt the good life you had no doubt lead... imagine my surprise when I learned that my thoughts were all wrong... I sort of admire you, Harry. You had a background almost as bad, if not worse, than any of the Marauders, but you're dealing with it so much better than we did. Far as I know, you're not taking out your frustration on anyone, like we used to. Damn right nightmares, we were," said the man with a little humor in his voice, clearly fond memories in his mind.

"So you're not so much a negligent arse trying to hang onto my fame. You're just a pathetic coward," summarized Harry in a cold voice, making Remus cringe, "I guess I could at least forgive you for that, however... I... Could you... tell me a little about my parents, sometime?"

Remus smiled a bright and warm smile. "I'd like to do that, whenever you've got the time, Harry," he said, pulling the boy into a bone crushing hug, "I'm sorry I was never there,"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Man up, Lupin, and work towards making up for it. I said I MIGHT forgive you. You've got two years of shitty teachers to make up to."

"I'll do what I can, and I'll pull something out of my arse if I have to. I was the idea man for the marauders, you know?" said the older one with a grin.

"We'll see," said Harry with a matching grin, "by the way, I've got a set of friends to introduce you to..."


	4. Getting Past Prongs

"The Patronus is... hard," Harry admitted, sighing, "I can't think of a happy enough memory to power it. I can get mist, and a somewhat hazy form, but nothing that I can even identify," admitted the boy who lived, pouting.

Hermione and Ron laughed. "I can't believe there's something you can't do, Harry," said Ron, sounding mirthful as he did.

"Try with a different memory, Harry, until you find one that works. What are you using, anyway?" she asked, curious.

"I'm using the memory of the first time I truly pushed a broom to its limits, back when I raced Malfoy. It might not look like it, but I really do love flying. Maybe that's not the kind of emotion I need... Wait, I know!" Harry said, smiling to himself.

He then performed the necessary wand movements and yelled his charm with all his might, thinking of a certain memory very hard. A beautiful, bright white stag appeared. It charged forward, moving desks aside as it rushed through the disused classroom they were using to practice. "Well, I think I just found out what powers the Patronus," he said, smiling widely as the stag stopped prancing around and dissipated.

"Harry, I don't think the Patronus is supposed to be physical like that..." murmured Hermione.

"It is now," Ron said, shaking his head. "Magic does whatever the hell Harry Potter says it does," he clarified.

Hermione looked at him. She looked hard. And then she huffed. "Some day, I will figure out how you're abusing the laws of magic. And then you will be sorry."

Now the two boys were laughing, leaving Hermione even further annoyed.

"If you really wanna know? It's the power..."

Both wizard and witch leaned forward to try to hear Harry's conspiratory tone better, as he whispered the answer in a hushed tone.

"... of love!"

And then he burst out laughing at their put out faces.


	5. Getting Past Ravenclaw

"How did you know about us, Harry?" asked Lupin, taking a seat opposite to Harry's in yet another unused classroom. "I doubt the marauders are the stuff of scholarly legend..."

"Actually? You are. The Marauders and some of their more elaborate pranks made it to Hogwarts, A History. I asked Hermione if there was anything on some group of people called 'The Marauders' when Fred and George explained how they were always able to escape Filch. By the way, the Map is REALLY useful when it comes down to keeping track of certain troublesome students."

And then suddenly, Luna Lovegood appeared through the door. "Hi, Professor Lupin! Hi, Harry!" she said, cheerfully waltzing in as if she owned the place. "Harry, you told me to tell you if the Nargles got uppity again, so I came to tell you, like you told me to," she explained, her wide eyes moving rapidly between the teacher and the student. "Am I interrupting something?"

"I also told you that I didn't care if you interrupted something, Luna, this is more important than me," he said, gesturing towards her. He sighed, then, and turned back to Lupin. "Can we talk again tomorrow? I kind of have something to do right now."

Lupin nodded, and watched his last remaining friend's son depart with the Lovegood girl, following her as she lead him through the castle's hallways. He chuckled, shaking his head, at how Prongs' son was following in his father's footsteps, already a little lady killer.

However, contrary to Lupin's thoughts, Harry had followed Luna to the common room with entirely different ideas in mind. In fact, he'd come into the common room, a wide, circular space as to be expected from being on a circular tower that was still arranged the same way as it'd been when Flitwick had given the Ravenclaws a speech on how to behave in the school along with tips to help with their schoolwork.

Harry turned to a prefect and smiled. "Would you kindly gather your house? I have an announcement I'd like to make to all of you, and I don't particularly care for repeating myself," explained the boy who lived, drawing on the influence of his scar to make his request more forceful, subtly lifting his bangs so it was visible.

The fifth year prefect sighed, but complied, and soon, most of Ravenclaw was gathered in the room. Not having any classes to teach at the moment, so was Flitwick. He was still getting ready to assemble the dueling club that evening, so he had battle robes on instead of the more elaborate robes he used to teach.

The tiny professor was entirely puzzled as to why one of the best students he'd ever had, that was not in Ravenclaw, had come to his common room to give a speech to his house. Having used Harry as a teaching assistant for a long time, however, he felt inclined to allow the boy a bit of freedom. In short, Flitwick wanted to see where Harry would lead to.

"I will make this short and to the point. Luna Lovegood is under the protection of the House of Potter. So I have said it, so mote it be," he said, as the white glow of a cast oath distracted everyone. "Therefore, I demand that any and all who have taken her property return it immediately. Failure to comply will constitute a grave insult towards the House of Potter."

Flitwick's eyes immediately hardened. "Are you accusing my house of thievery, Heir of Potter?" the tiny half goblin spoke, the edge of steel in his voice unmistakable.

"The House of Ravencalw is the house of Quick Wit and Clever Reason, is it not? It is the house for the intelligent and those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge," he continued, seeing an approving nod in Flitwick's motions, "then let's see if the 'Claws are smart enough to recognize when to fold," he said, turning back to face the majority of the house.

"Harry, you don't have to-" Luna began, eyes widened in shock at the display of support for her.

"Actually, I do. On the muggle world, I am powerless to affect many things that I wish I could change, Luna, but here I am not. Here my name wields power. Here I have influence and the strength to bring the respect my name evokes into motion. Here, I am Harry James Potter, Son of James Charlus Potter, Heir to the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter, future Potter of Potter. I am somebody, and I can make a difference. If I start with you, well, I consider that as good a start as any!"

"You know, from your usual demeanor, people would think you don't actually care that much about what goes on in Hogwarts. You're usually just laid back and chill no matter what comes. It is odd to see you so passionate about something," a ravenclaw that was in his year, but Harry, for the life of him, couldn't put a name to, spoke.

"Subtlety is a virtue all on its own," Flitwick said, preempting Harry, "I do believe, Mister Potter, that your accusations at the very least deserve the merit of investigation. I will not condone any violence, but I will not condone, aid or abet any bullying within the House of Knowledge."

"Anyone who returns Luna's property promptly will be forgiven," Harry said, seeing the somewhat disbelieving students who scoffed at whatever threat Harry could prove. The purebloods amongst the bullies would, very soon, find themselves in a bit of a pickle as their parents learned that their actions were putting them at odds with the family that had become a synonym for the light as of late.

Filius Flitwick smiled internally, seeing the boy he'd helped nurture both in charms and in the Dueling Club. Harry had proven a gifted student for both, and an able and willing tutor whenever necessary. He wouldn't tell anyone, but Harry Potter was probably his second favorite student ever.

The first place, of course, was still held by Harry's mother. But then again, Lily Evans had held more talent for charms than even Flitwick himself possessed.

It did little, however, to quench the anger Flitwick held for those who stooped so low as to bully one of their own housemates. And of course, the anger he held against himself for not noticing it.


	6. Getting Past Buckbeak

"It flew away," said Harry, shrugging.

"Someone must have liberated it," reasoned the executioner, Walden MacNair.

"Actually, the person you told to detain the creature happens tu be Rubeus Hagrid, whose wand was snapped when he was wrongly convicted of the murder of Myrtle Henderson. As he was incapable of creating magical bindings for the creature that attacked young Mister Malfoy due to the lack of a license to carry a wand, he used a normal chain, which Buckbeak easily broke," explained Harry, speaking in a condescending tone to the minister's posse.

"Then we should punish Hagrid," reasoned Fudge.

"Punish him for following the law?" an amused Director Bones asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well, we can't really do much here, now can we?" she asked.

And then the executioner party left.

Harry smiled. "All according to plan," he said, nodding to himself.

Hagrid wept tears of joy, Ron and Hermione congratulated Harry on a job well done, Ginny eeped and ran away after giving her own congratulations and stumbling face first into Harry's chest, Luna smiled a whimsical smile and Dumbledore looked on fondly.

Remus Lupin could not be present. He was recovering from a duel with Flitwick for the Dueling Club.


	7. Getting Past Quidditch

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

Prongs, as Harry had decided to nickname his Patronus to end all Patronii, rushed forth and gored a dementor on his antlers. Without a care in the world, the vain and proud creature threw away the thing it had impaled and proceeded to issue a challenge to all the other dementors around, forcing them to back away and out of the Quidditch pitch.

"Uhm... Potter, your Patronus is terrifying," said Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff seeker, as he floated alongside Harry.

"I know," said Harry, "the scariest part is that I'm not actually controlling it. Not entirely. I just told it to drive away the dementors..."

"Remind me to never, EVER, piss you off, Potter," spoke Cedric with an air of finality that told Harry that he really meant it.

"So... back to the game?" asked Harry, once the dementors floated away.

Cedric beat Harry to the snitch, since Harry could not use his tactic of 'Just Watch Out For The Snitch' and Cedric was a legitimately better flyer despite the vastly inferior broom, but Hufflepuff's defense was so bad it didn't make a damn bit of difference.


	8. Getting Past Firebolts

"The broom could have been tampered with," said Hermione, stubbornly.

"Unlikely," shot Ron back, pushing back nonexistent glasses, "I'm the expert on brooms here, not you, so you sit your arse down and listen to me!" he yelled, pointing at a couch in Gryffindor's common room. "This broom? It costs more than my father earns in a year. In fact, it might cost more than my house and the terrain under it, and the Weasleys do own a lot of property. This thing? Just short of impossible to tamper with. The broom companies guard the secrets to their construction VERY jealously, and that includes a myriad ways to stop people from freely copying their designs. It's similar to what's used to stop people from copying really rare tomes, family grimoires and all those REALLY exclusive things."

Harry nodded. "I've been to my family's vault. Trust me, if someone wants something to remain unique, it will be unique no matter what. I'd need to use every last knut in my Trust Vault to pay for one single Firebolt, and I've got a lot of funds," piped in the raven haired boy.

"These are hand crafted and enchanted to the last detail, with the utmost attention paid to them. This, Hermione, is the epitome of racing brooms. It's a pity it's built for speed and maneuverability at high speed, so it's totally useless to me as a keeper, otherwise I would give my firstborn child for one," continued Ron, matter of factly. "I've heard from Victor Krum's reviews that it actually handles very poorly at low speed conditions. I don't even know how that works," he admitted, shrugging, "but it does."

"Okay, I guess you'd know more about this sort of thing than I would," Hermione admitted, sheepishly. Behind that, however, Harry could see she was actually angry at herself for her ignorance and jealous of Ron for the fact that Harry had sided with his oldest friend against her.

Harry smiled. "See? It pays to have friends who're not new to this culture," he said, winking at Hermione. "I've got the best of both worlds with me," he said, sitting beside hear and throwing a hand around her shoulders, "we can't all be the best at everything like me," he finished, cheekily.

Hermione swatted at his arm, letting out a small giggle, finding the entire thing amusing then. Ron joined her when she broke into full blown laughter.

Bullet, dodged, Harry thought to himself, smiling.


	9. Getting Past Padfoot

After many shenanigans involving many inventions from the Weasley Twins, Harry Potter, Remus Lupin and Dumbledore cornered Sirius Black.

"How can I convince you that I wasn't the secret keeper? What do you need me to do? I had Peter, but the traitorous son of a bitch escaped right from under my hands!" the convict nearly snarled, clearly blaming himself for the escape of the rat he'd dropped when he'd been distracted by the arrival of the others.

Severus Snape walked forward and administered Veritaserum.

"I was not the secret keeper for James and Lily," said Sirius, through gritted teeth.

"... Oh shit, Padfoot, I'm so sorry!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's my fault there was confusion in the first place. I shouldn't have told everyone I was the secret keeper to keep the Death Eaters off Wormtail's tracks. I never could have guessed he was the leak, though..."

Later, Fred and George smiled. "Well, if the Joke Shop idea falls through," began George.

"At least we've clearly got a career as bounty hunters," finished Fred.

Remus Lupin and Dumbledore nodded. "Most definitely. Your skills at tracking and harassment were invaluable this night. Your inventions, as well, were ingenious beyond measure. Now, if you could put your minds behind a way to replicate my lemon drops..."

"Throw some money at the problem," Fred began, smiling widely.

"And it just might solve itself," finished George, winking exaggeratedly.

Dumbledore laughed heartily.


	10. Getting Past Third Year

Hufflepuff won the Quidditch Cup that year. Giving Harry, Fred, George, Ron and Hermione points for the Sirius Black debacle would've required that Dumbledore justify those points, as he was not one to abuse the point system, so he decided not to. None of them truly cared about House Points anyway, being busier with other things.

Ravenclaw had hit Rock Bottom on the matter of points after Flitwick was done with the female half of his house. On the flipside, Luna Lovegood was a very happy girl indeed, since nobody had the balls necessary to tackle on the Potter family.

Slytherin got in third, mostly due to Snape doing his hardest to keep Slytherin's point count afloat. Most of the snakes had earned themselves no sympathy whatsoever from the teachers other than Snape, with their antics. Turns out most teachers being Light Aligned and most Slytherins being the sons or daughters of Death Eaters makes for a biased point system. That the children were following in their parents' footsteps wasn't helping.

Gryffindor enjoyed no outrageous point losses, well other than Neville Longbottom's losses during potions class, or wins, so they hit a comfortable, if distant, second place.

Hufflepuff's team spirit helped pull them through, having a positive effect against the dementor-induced depression that had afflicted everyone else's grades, attitudes and temperaments. The house partied like it was 999, since it might as well have been that long since they'd won the House Cup.


End file.
